Grain-door structure



Feb; 26 1924. 1,484,634

C. H. FOSS GRAIN DOOR STRUCTURE Filed March ,11 1.922 3 Sheets-Sheet lJ32 I P/Ziv?" c. H. FOSS GRAIN DOOR STRUCTURE Fil ed March 11,

Feb. 26 1924.

19 2 s Sheets-Sheet 2 Feb. 26 1924.

- c. H. oss

GRAIN DOOR STRUCTURE Patented Feb. 26, 1924.

UNITED STATES CLABENCE H. F088, 01 MINOT, NORTH DAKOTA.

GRAIN-DOOR STRUCTURE Application filed larch 11, 1922. Serial 1T0.542,857.

, To all'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Charlene]: H. Foss, a citizen of the United States,residing at Minot, in the county of Ward and State of 8 North .Dakota,have invented certain new' and useful Improvements in Grain-DoorStructures; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact descri tion of the invention, such as will enab e othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a car. door closure particularly designed as agrain door. It is well known that when the car is loaded with grainthere is a great pressure against the door and it is most ditlicult togive the initial opening movement thereto.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to construct agrain door mounted for guided vertical movement and to provide means forgiving increased leverage to raise the door through its initial openingmovement.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a grain door ada tedto be guided for vertical movement an to be moved into an inoperativeposition above the door.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide a grain doorcomprising a plurality of hinged sections, which sections are ada ted tobe folded intosubstantially parallerrelation and to rovide means forholding. the doors in suc folded position.

It is another object of the invention to provide a means by which themeans holdmg the door in folded position wlll be released when the dooris lowered a certain distance toward closing position.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be fullyset forth in the following description made in connection with the accomanying drawings in which like reference c aracters refer to the sameparts throughout the different views, and in which,

Fig. 1 is a view in elevation of the inside of the door and the meansfor operatingthe same;

Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section of the car, the door being shownin end elevation; 1 Fig. 3 is a partial horizontal section taken on theline 33 of Fig. 2, as indicated by the arrows, a portion of the guidingroller being also shown;

and the r00 ng structure 3.

Fig. 4 is a view in elevation of a portion of the car and door;

Fig. 5 is a partial end view of the door in folded position, showinganother position of the samein dotted lines; and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the hinge connecting the door sections.

Referring to the drawings, the side of a box car is indicated, of whichit will only be necessary to consider the door posts 1, the lintels orsu ports 2 at the top of the door,

he sides and other portions of the car structure shown are thoroughlyapparent and a detailed description thereof is unnecessary;

Secured to the inside of the posts and projecting inwardly of the doortherefrom IS a guiding plate 4. This plate extends upwardly along theposts and is bent into curved form and secured in spaced relation to theroofing of the car, as clearly shown in Fig. 2.

The door proper comprises a plurality of hinged sections 5 which, in theembodiment illustrated, are two in number of substantially equal-widthsand are connected by a plate hinge of a common construction, comprisingthe members 6 and 7 shown in Fig. 6 and the usual hinge intle. Themembers 6 and 7 are folded or tted about the adjacent edges of the doorsections, as shown in Fig. 5. The outer sides of the door sections 5have angle members 8 suitably secured thereto, one edge of whichoverlaps the ed of the plate 4. To the outer side of t e lower doorsection are secured vertical angle strips 9, adjacent the top of whichis journaled a roller 10 projecting from one side of the angle strip andbearin with its flat surface against the outer si e of the plate 4. Theplate 4, angle members 8 and 9 and roller 10 thus form a guiding meansfor controllin the movement of the door to closed an open positions.

To the outside of the door adjacent the bottom edge thereof are securedsheave brackets carrying small sheaves 11 disposed adjacent the sides ofthe door. To the lintels or cross members 2 are secured bearing brackets12 in which is journaled a shaft 13 extending parallel to the door abovethe door opening, this shaft being held in position by suitable collarspinned to the ends thereof outside of said bearing. The shaft has aportion 13 of increased diameter ad- A flexible member illustrated as achain 17 has one end secured to the outer end of the portion 13 of theshaft 13 by a suitable eye bolt and the member passes over the pulley14.- above the shaft 13 and then downward around the sheaves 11, andupward over the other pulley 14 and thence downward to the shaft 13 towhich its other end is secured. When the door is in closed position, asshown in Fig. 4, the chain 17 is wound through a plurality ofconvolutions about the shaft 13 at its smaller end. An endless chain orother flexible member 26 passes over the sheave 15* and downwardly alongthe side of the car. In this closed position "of the door, staples 18provided therein are in position to be engaged by hooks 19 secured tothe door posts to hold the door against lifting movement.

The sections of the door are adapted to be swung into foldedsubstantially parallel relation and the upper section 5 is adapted toswing downwardly toward the lower section. The lower section is providedat some distance from its lower edge with latch members 20 and the uppersection is provided with similar spring pressed latches 21. When thedoors are swung into parallel relation, as illustrated in Fig. 5, thelatches 20 and 21 will be engaged. As shown in Fig. 5, each latch 21 hasa stem projectingq'nto a housing 22. This stem has projecting therefromor secured thereto a bolt 23 extending through the other end of thehousing and having an eye thereon. A spring 24 surrounds this bolt inthe housing and tends to maintain the latch pressed downwardly away fromthe housing. When the upper section is folded down on the lower section,as shown in Fig. 5, the latches, as stated, will be engaged and thesprings 24 will maintain said latches in their engaged positions. Aflexible member shown as a chain25 is attached to the eye of bolt 23 andhas its .other wardly and releasing the same from thelatch 20. The lowersection of the door can then swin down. The upper section of the doorcan t en swing u wardl and the door be lowered to its entirely c osedsition. The end of the chain 25 will mere y swing about in the eye onbolt 23.

In operation, assuming the door to be in its closed position, as shownin Fi s. 1 and 4, the hooks 19 will be released an the chain 26 will bepulled downwardly to rotate the sheave 15 and shaft 13. As the shaft isrotated, one end of the chain 17 will be wound upon the enlarged portion13 thereof and the other end 0 the chain will be unwound from the otherend of the shaft which is of smaller diameter than the portion 13".There will thus be more length of chain wound up than is unwound and adifferential action will be produced which will tend to lift the pulleys11 and the door will thus be moved vertically. After the chain isunwound from the smaller end of the shaft 13 it will begin to wind up onsaid smaller end in the same direction as it is wound on the portion13*. The door will then be lifted at much greater speed. It will thus beseen that for the initial lifting movement, a greater leverage will beexerted upon the door than for the subsequent movement. It is well knownthat when the car is full of grain there is a great pressure against thedoor and it is much more diflicult to give the initial movement to thedoor than to give a subsequent movement. After the door has been raiseda certain extent, the upper section 5 can be swung downwardly into theposition shown in Fig. 5 and the latches 21 will engage the latches 20.The door, at this time, is sufficiently high for the chain 25 to permitthis movement. The door will continue to move upwardly in its foldedposition guided by the rollers 10 and will eventually swing into theposition shown-in dotted lines in Fig. 2 at the top of the car. As thesheave 15 is turned by chain 26, the same, together with the shaft 13will be held in its successive positions by the pawl 16 engaging itsco-operating ratchet wheel. When 1t is desired to lower the door, thepawl 16 can be disengaged from the ratchet and the door will move downreadily by gravity. The speed of descent of the door can be regulated byholding the chain 26 and letting the same move over the sheave 15 at thedesn'ed speed. As already described, when the door reaches a certainposition, the chain 25 will disengage the latches 20 and 21 and theupper section can then swing to its vertical osition. When the door isclosed it can be hel a ainst movement in its closed position by therocks 19 engaging the staples 18.

From the above description it is seen that applicant has provided asimple and efiicient door for a grain car. The door can be quickly andeasily opened and the mechanism thereof is disposed where it will notinterfere with the normal operations about the car. The parts of thestructure are comparatively few and the structure can be made quiterugged and when once assembled will have no tendency to becomedisarranged or get out of repair.

It .will, of course, be understood that various changes maybe made inthe form, details and arrangement of the device without departing fromthe scope of applicants invention, which, generally stated, consists inthe matter shown and described and set forth in the appended claims.

\Vhat is claimed is:

1. A grain door structure having in combination a door comprising hingedsections, a guideway for guiding said door in its opening movement, aflexible member attached to said door and a rotatable differentiallyoperating means comprising a shaft of ditferent. diameters to which theends of said flexible member are secured for moving said flexible meansto raise said door, said flexible member, when the door is closed, beingwound about the smaller end of said shaft.

2. The combination with a car door mounted for vertical movement, of aliftin device comprising a rotatable shaft disposed above the top ofsaid door having a lar er diameter atone end than the other, a flexi lemember having its ends secured to the ends of said shaft and normallywound about the smaller end thereof in a direction opposite to that inwhich the shaft is turned to raise said door, and spaced pulleys securedto the door adjacent the bottom thereof over which the flexible memberruns.

3. The combination with a car structure having a door opening therein,of a door comprising hinged sections guided for vertical movement,spaced pulleys on the lower section, a flexible member adapted to moveover said pulleys, and rotating means adjacent the top of the dooropening to which the ends of said flexible member are secured, saidmeans being adapted initially to wind up one end of said flexible memberat one speed and unwind the other end at a less speed.

4. The structure set forth in claim 3, said rotating means comprising amember having a small diameter at one end on which the flexible memberis partially wound in one direction when the door is in closed positionand having a large diameter at its other end for winding up a flexiblemember in the opposite direction to raise the door, the chain beingadapted to unwind from the smaller end during such raising movement.

5. The combination with a car structure havin a door opening therein, ofa door comprising two hinged sections, a latch adjacent the bottom ofthe lower section, a latch adjacent the top of the top section, the topsection being adapted to swing .down substantially parallel to the.lower section and automatically engage the said latches.

6. The structure set forth in claim 5, said folded sections in latchedrelation being adapted to be moved into position above the door opening,and means secured to said latches and to the car above said door openingfor automatically disengaging said latches when the door is moveddownward a certain distance. Y

7. The combination with a car having a door opening therein, of a doorguided for vertical movement and for movement into position over thedoor opening. a lifting mechanism for said door comprising a rotatableshaft over said door having portions of different diameters, spacedpulleys secured adjacent the bottom of said door, and a chain having itsends respectively secured to the said portions of said shaft and woundthereabout and passing down and under said pulleys on the door.

8. The structure set fortlr in claim 7, said door comprising sectionshinged on a horizontal axis and adapted to fold together when opened,said pulleys being carried by the lowermost section.

9. The structure set forth in claim 7, and sheaves rotatably mountedabove said shaft adjacent each end thereof over which said chain passesbefore passing down to said pulleys on the door.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

CLARENCE H. FOSS.

